Unexpected mountaineering 101

Hiking the Triglav range in Slovenia

Mount Triglav (2.864m) in the Julian alps is one of the peaks that can be almost hiked up to with no need for technical skills. It is embedded in a beautiful range with well develop trails and a solid mountain hut infrastructure. So one might think that a four day hiking trip through the range and up the peak would be quite enjoyable and not to hard in late August. Right? Let me tell you: The mountain had a very different opinion about that!

We started our hike a late Friday afternoon from Stara Fužina in a thunderstorm with heavy rain. The forecast had changed over the course of the week heading up to our trip to rain and possible snow on the peak for Saturday. But it was supposed to get better on Sunday and Monday - our two high altitude days. After drying of as much as possible in the hut for that night we were introduced to what would become a stable for the next few days: Jota stew made of potatos, beans and Sauerkraut. Hearty, filling and actually quite delicious.

Saturday morning we headed out towards the valley of the seven lakes in light rain. The weather push us to move quickly and we arrived at the seven lakes hut early in the afternoon. Unfortunately we did have low visibility the whole day which only cleared up a bit upon our arrival in the valley at about 1700m. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the few other people there. Namely Matt, a hiker from the UK with whom we would team up for the rest of the hike.

The forecast for the next day had gotten worse and it would turn out that having a more experienced hiker / mountaineer with us would prove quite helpful.

During breakfast the rain started to mix with snow and with no signs of the situations improving we started to walk up the end of the valley towards the pass at 2.400m that would bring us into the next valley. From there the climb up the the Planika hut below the peak itself would start. The rain changed to hail and then to snow at the end of the valley. Crossing the pass turned out to be quite challenging as the snow got heavier, the temperature dropped below freezing and the wind picked up considerably. Everything being covered in a thick layer of snow and cold hands made the scrambly bits harder and slowed us down but we made it over the pass.

After descending on snowed in trails to 2.100m we warmed up and ate in the Doliču hut. After a few minutes of debate the decision was taken to keep on going towards Planika hoping that Monday the weather would allow us to get on the peak itself. The final kilometers of the day proved less difficult than the earlier pass but did include a few stretches scrambling with cables to grab onto. The very final ascent through the deep snow got the heart pumping but with hot chocolate on our minds we made it. That evening the view finally opened up but with no cloud cover and strong winds the temperature dropped even more.

What had been snow the day before had become a solid layer of ice the next morning after. The conditions were just to treacherous for a summit attempt.
After some back and forth we had to make the decision to wait for the ice to meld and start our long descent from 2.400m back to our starting point using a different route this time. Mount Triglav did throw everything it had in our faces but we made it up to the last stop before the summit - I would call it a draw, for now.

The perfectly clear sky and the snow at altitude did provide for fantastic views and the long way down went by in a breeze. After not having seen anybody on the trail the last days seeing quite a lot of people that days was quite a surprise. Even though the bad weather was challenging it made sure we had the mountain for ourselves which was a real treat in hindsight.

I am sure I will remember this trip as being a great experience and success. Even with some of it being type 2 fun.

Adventurers: Martin, Matt and Bengt